


Didn't Have You Where I Come From

by torakowalski



Category: Blood-Smoke Series - Tanya Huff, Smoke Series - Tanya Huff
Genre: Coming Out, Lee's Family, M/M, Mild Child Endangerment, Post-Canon, Supernatural Creatures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-18
Updated: 2014-12-18
Packaged: 2018-03-02 02:56:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2797064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torakowalski/pseuds/torakowalski
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony really didn't want to go home or deal with the rest of the world, not when he could stay in bed with Lee all day. Unfortunately, the rest of the world had other ideas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Didn't Have You Where I Come From

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cero_ate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cero_ate/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide to cero_ate! Hope you enjoy :)
> 
> And thank you to my Super Secret beta, who put up with this growing longer and longer and time growing shorter and shorter.

Tony woke up when Lee’s phone rang, but he only started really paying attention, when Lee said, “Can you tell them thanks, but no thanks?”

Frowning, Tony sat up and tried to get Lee’s attention, but Lee was staring very firmly out of his big, frost-covered bedroom window and not looking Tony’s way.

“No, no, I know,” Lee was saying, “but it took them months to get back to us after the audition. They can’t be that desperate to hire me.”

Tony wrapped the top sheet around his waist and stumbled across the bedroom to put himself in Lee’s eyeline. He raised his eyebrows and pointed at the phone.

They’d only been sleeping together for four days, so it was possible he wasn’t supposed to make pushy and questioning faces at Lee just yet, but he had a feeling Lee was doing something stupid and that he was doing it for him, so Tony felt justified.

Lee made a face back at him and shook his head. “Seriously,” he said to whoever was on the phone - Tony was guessing his agent. “ _Amazons In Space 5_ isn’t going to make my career and I kind… I kind of want to spend the holidays at home, this year.”

He glanced up at Tony from under his eyelashes, then immediately away again. 

Tony thought for a moment, then drew his fingers through the air. He’d used his magic to draw runes that sent demons back to their own dimension during the invasion; there was no reason why he couldn’t also use it to bug Lee while he was on the phone.

_Hey don’t turn down work for me!_

Lee tipped his head, watching the letters as they zoomed over to dance in front of his eyes. Then he laughed softly and reached out to poke them.

Tony held his breath, waiting to see if they were going to burn Lee or zap him or do something else terrible. All they actually did was wriggle a little and then let Lee rearrange them. It was kind of embarrassing how easily Tony’s magic lay down and begged for Lee. Tony was refusing to draw any parallels.

 _don’t worry!_ Lee sent back, then grinned, looking delighted by his own cleverness.

Tony shook his head and gave up. Lee made his skin tingle and his heart beat too fast, and sometimes Tony had to take him in small doses so he didn’t stroke out. 

Wrapping his sheet more firmly around himself, so it was more a toga and less a trip hazard, he made his way into the kitchen.

Lee’s condo was ridiculous. His kitchen was bigger than Tony’s whole apartment, which, okay, wasn’t _hard_ , but still. He had a real bedroom with a real bed in it, not just a fold out in the corner, and his shower didn’t just have water pressure, it had a _mist_ feature.

(Tony hadn’t gone home in four days, and while that was mostly because of all the sex that was suddenly on offer, it was also a little bit due to the mist feature.)

There was a coffee maker on the marble counter in the kitchen, which Lee seemed to be able to sweet talk into doing anything, but so far Tony couldn’t actually find the on switch.

“Uh, coffee machine power on?” he tried. 

It didn’t power on. It didn’t do anything. It just kept on being huge and chrome and possibly the type of expensive that might make him cry, if he knew how much it had cost.

Tony wiggled his fingers at it. “Hocus pocus give me coffeeus.”

The coffee machine beeped once and Tony’s heart leaped with hope, but then it fell silent, again.

Tony swore at it.

Behind him, he heard a laugh, and then Lee’s warm hands landed on his shoulders, thumbs digging briefly into the base of his neck in a way that made every muscle in Tony’s back unlock.

“Step away from the coffee machine,” Lee said, in a pretty good approximation of a cop talking through a megaphone. 

“It hates me,” Tony said sadly. “I was going to make you coffee.”

“Yeah, no.” Lee gave him a little push toward the breakfast island in the middle of the kitchen. “Didn’t we agree I was in charge of feeding us?”

They had agreed that, on the first morning Tony stayed over, when he had nearly burned down the building getting a bagel stuck in the toaster.

“You seemed busy,” Tony said, sitting down out of the way, and trying to sound nonchalant. He didn’t do a very good nonchalant, but he’d been working on it. 

Lee pressed a combination of buttons that Tony would never have guessed needed to be pressed, and the machine burst into happy, blue-lit life. No seriously, it even sang a little tune.

“That was my agent,” Lee said. He pulled mugs down from the mug cupboard (he had enough space for a mug cupboard, not a mug… inuksuk like Tony had) and didn’t look at Tony.

“Guessed that,” Tony said, then wondered if he should have played it cooler. Fuck it, Lee knew he wasn’t cool. “You got that movie?”

“Yep, _Amazons in Space 5_!” Lee added an exaggerated spin to the exclamation point, then started spooning coffee into the top of the machine.

Tony was pretty sure Lee didn’t want to talk about this, but he kept pushing anyway. “That’s the one you were waiting to hear back from, right? The one in Australia?”

Finally, Lee finished fiddling with the coffee and turned around. He smiled, but it was nervous around the edges and stubborn in the middle. “They called this morning to say they want me to fly out tomorrow. That’s really fucking rude, I’d be turning them down anyway, even if I didn’t have, you know…”

He trailed off, wrinkling his nose at himself, like he was embarrassed by his own inability to get to the end of the sentence.

Since Tony was pretty sure the end of the sentence was _even if I didn’t have you_ , couldn’t really fault him. Feelings were hard to talk about.

“Would you really though?” Tony asked.

Lee opened his mouth then closed it again then sighed. “I’d be threatening to turn them down, and I’d be really grumpy for like the first day on set, once I got there?”

“You would not.” Tony laughed. “You’re charming on set. It’s your thing.”

“My thing?” Lee asked, grinning. He pushed away from the counter and sauntered over to Tony. Since he was wearing sweatpants that only just sat on his hips and no shirt, it was a very good saunter, the kind that made Tony’s mouth go dry. “Tell me more about my _thing_.”

He almost pulled it off, but he added an eyebrow waggle at the last moment, and Tony dissolved into laughter. “Sorry, sorry, that was very sexy, really.”

Lee quit with his sexy face and smiled. He had a tiny, lopsided smile for when he was really pleased about something, and he really seemed to like making people laugh.

It had only been four days, but Tony had learned all these new things about him, and each new thing made him lo… _like_ Lee more.

The coffee machine beeped and Lee turned back to it, filling two mugs then hesitating. “Two sugars in the morning, right?” he asked.

“Right,” Tony said, and tried not to grin too ridiculously. It wasn’t that big a deal that Lee had remembered, really it wasn’t.

Lee sat down, pushed Tony’s coffee across the table to him, then took a drink from his own. “I’m not doing the movie,” he said firmly.

Tony thought about it for a minute, then he nodded. “Okay,” he said. He drank some coffee, peeked up at Lee from under his bangs, and mumbled, “Good.”

Lee did him the favour of pretending not to hear, just smiled a little and looked satisfied.

***

Tony probably should have gone home at some point. His apartment was likely to gain sentience and lock him out, if he was gone much longer, but every time Tony started to suggest that, Lee would do something like kiss him or drag him back to bed or just be really hot and irresistible in his general vicinity and all his good intentions would dissolve.

Which was why it was suddenly ten p.m. again and he was staring at the blank screen of his very dead cell phone. That probably wasn’t good. As the wizard-on-call he probably should be, you know, on-call.

“Do you have a phone charger?” Tony called towards the bathroom that was attached to Lee’s bedroom. He had a second bathroom too, down the hallway, because a guy who lived alone obviously needed _two_ bathrooms.

“Sorry, what?” Lee called back, so Tony got up and walked toward the door.

It wasn’t closed all the way, but he still knocked and waited before barging in. It had taken Lee months to be okay with kissing, he probably wasn’t ready to go straight into intimate bathroom interruptions.

“Hey,” Lee said, so Tony pushed the door open and peeked around it.

Lee was standing in front of his big, circular wall mirror, the lower half of his face covered in shaving cream, while he very carefully scraped a razor over his top lip. Tony leaned back against the doorframe, completely forgetting what he’d come in here for. It shouldn’t have been distracting to watch Lee shave, Tony did it too, but it really, stupidly was.

“Okay?” Lee asked, finishing his lip and moving on to his jaw. 

“I, um.” Tony blinked then blinked again. “I think I’m having a moment. Have you seen Skyfall?”

Lee grinned, white teeth and white shaving foam making his lips look very red. “Dude, I’d trust you with my life in a demon invasion, but I draw the line at letting you shave me with a straight razor.”

Tony’s breath stuttered just as the thought of it, but he managed to get a hold of himself. He watched, captivated, while Lee finished up, then admired the very nice line of his very nice spine, when he stooped to rinse off the remainder of the soap.

“Did you know that you’re ridiculously hot?” Tony asked. “Do you have your own calendar, yet?”

Lee dried his face on a hand towel, then threw the towel at Tony. Tony, obviously, didn’t catch it, but he maybe used a little Come To Me to make it look as though he had. “No, I don’t have my own calendar. I did get an offer, but they wanted me to do it naked, so.”

There were suddenly some very conflicting thoughts in Tony’s head. The desire to have twelve naked photos of Lee on his wall warring with some very embarrassing jealousy at the thought of everyone _else_ also having those pictures.

“No nudity?” he asked, managing not to sound too strangled.

“No nudity,” Lee agreed. “It’s in my contract.”

Tony laughed. “I bet it’s not in Mason’s.” Assuming Mason still looked good naked, there was no way he’d miss out on the possibility of that much attention.

Lee leaned in close, wrapping an arm around Tony’s waist. His cheek was so smooth against Tony’s that it felt like a whole new level of intimacy. “Mason has the option for an ass double, in his contract.”

“Really?!” Tony demanded. “What’s wrong with his ass?”

Lee shrugged. “I have no fucking clue; I’ve never seen it. Don’t tell him I told you that; it’s probably supposed to be a secret.”

“Don’t worry,” Tony promised. “I’m great at secrets.” He reached up and lay his hands against Lee’s cheeks. “Why did you shave before bed?”

“I, uh.” For some reason, the very tops of Lee’s cheeks blushed pink. “I was getting pretty beardy, and it seemed rude?”

“Why? Where were you planning to put your face?” Tony had definitely meant that almost entirely as a joke, but Lee’s blush spread.

“Between your legs?” Lee said, all in a rush.

It took Tony two seconds to realise that he really had meant it, and then he maybe kind of gulped. “Oh fuck,” he said. Then, when Lee seemed to be waiting, added, “ _Yes_.”

Lee bit his lip and smiled around it. He really was unbearably sexy; those girls that screamed about him on tumblr were one hundred percent right.

“C’mon,” Lee said and caught Tony’s wrist, hustling him into the bedroom.

***

In Tony’s defence, being the first person Lee ever blew was pretty distracting, so he totally forgot that he still hadn’t charged his phone, until he reached for it early the next morning, and found that it was still as dead as it had been last night.

“Okay, I really need a phone charger,” he told Lee, who was dozing sleepily next to him.

Lee blinked his eyes open and squinted when Tony held his phone up. “I only have Apple,” he said, because of course he did. Then, “Wait, no, I think Kindle chargers work on that kind of phone. There’s one… over there somewhere?”

“You’re such a great host,” Tony told him. He didn’t even try to fight how fond it sounded, just rolled out of bed and started looking in the direction Lee had (vaguely) pointed in.

One thing Tony had discovered about Lee, was that he owned a _lot_ of books, mostly cheap sci-fi ones with hideous neon covers and super trashy crime fiction. He also apparently had three kindles, which were piled up all together on the bottom shelf of his bookcase.

Tony turned around to ask him why he needed _three_ , but found that Lee had already fallen back to sleep, mouth slack and hair in his eyes.

Even that didn’t stop him being sexy. Tony was doomed.

Still, he was doomed with a phone charger, which was better than being doomed without one. He plugged his phone in and watched while the little battery power symbol started flickering. He was still watching, when all the missed call alerts started coming in and oh, oh that wasn’t good at _all_.

He had twelve missed calls. He also had twenty-seven text messages, but those mostly seemed to be from Amy and Zev and full of dirty, dirty innuendo about what he and Lee might be up to.

(It wasn’t necessary inaccurate, but he wasn’t going to tell them that.)

A lot of the missed calls were from Vicki Nelson, a few others were from Henry, and one was from Mike Celluci.

That was the one that made Tony worry; Mike had never called him. The most he ever did was spend two minutes being awkward on the phone, when Vicki called.

Since it was daylight and no one else would be able to answer the phone, Tony called Mike.

“Oh look, you’re alive,” was how Mike answered the phone.

“My phone was out of battery,” Tony said. He made a conscious choice not to sound defensive and forced his shoulders to relax. He liked Mike, would forever be grateful to him and Vicki, but Mike always made him feel like he was fifteen years old and about to fuck up massively.

“Yeah,” Mike said. “That’s what I told Vic, but you know what she’s like, and now that you’ve gone and gotten all magical, she worries about you even more.”

Tony tried very, very hard not to feel warm and pleased about that, but it was a losing battle. Having Vicki in his life was almost like having a mom, except younger, scarier, and a little more vampire.

“What’s up, anyway?” Tony asked. “I got like a million missed calls.”

“Vancouver’s having a supernatural fire problem, apparently,” Mike said, sounding like he couldn’t believe he lived a life where he had to say things like that. “Parts of two parks and a children’s library have been torched, and someone gave Vicki a tip that the fire wasn’t regular fire. She called Henry, and he said to call you because you’re the wizard in charge.”

“Really?” Tony asked, surprised. That was pretty impressive for Henry Fitzroy: Renowned Control Freak.

“Yeah, we were surprised too,” Mike said. “Is he mellowing?”

Tony thought about it and what a mellow Henry would be like. “Is it weird that that’s a terrifying thought?”

“Nope, I totally agree,” Mike said. “So you gonna be okay looking into your supernatural arsonist?”

“Sure.” Tony shrugged. “Might be fun. The show’s on hiatus, at least.”

“Cool,” Mike said, sounding like that was all there was to say and he was going to escape this call, now.

“Hey, Cellucci,” Tony said, before Mike could hang up on him. “Tell Victory I’m sorry I worried her?”

Mike laughed. “Eh, she wasn’t that worried, in the end. Henry told her you were probably having sex with your new boyfriend. Which I don’t want to know about. At all. Don’t tell me.”

“Too many dicks?” Tony asked, fake-sympathetically.

“That,” Mike agreed, readily. “Plus you’re a kid; I just don’t want to think about it.”

Tony snorted. He was almost ten years older than he’d been the first time Mike arrested him. "Anyone ever tell you you’re kind of weird?” he asked.

Mike laughed. “Be careful, kid,” he said, and hung up.

***

“I’m going to have to go home soon,” Tony told Lee later, when Lee had woken up and they were once again having breakfast. This was getting really domestic really fast. Tony didn’t actually object, but still felt like he should.

“Yeah,” Lee said with a wince. “I possibly need to leave the apartment or my family is going to send the police around.”

“Mine have already called a million times,” Tony said, rolling his eyes.

“Your family?” Lee asked, carefully. “I didn’t think you - ”

“Not _family_ family,” Tony said. He didn’t know how much Lee knew about his past - Zev knew everything, Amy knew some, and Darkest Night was gossipy as fuck. “Just my… my people?”

Lee kicked him lightly on the ankle bone. “I’d like to meet them, sometime.”

Tony felt his eyes go wide and he shook his head fast. “They’d scare you off,” he promised. “Like, seriously, you don’t want to meet them. They're in Toronto, anyway.”

“I want to meet them,” Lee said stubbornly. “And I’ll… I’ll introduce you to my family, at some point. I promise I will.”

Tony kicked him back. He wasn’t as graceful as Lee, so he probably kicked a little too hard, judging by Lee’s soft oof.

“It’s okay,” he said. “It’s cool.” He didn’t add that the whole idea of meeting Lee’s family was possibly even more terrifying than Lee meeting Mike and Vicki, but from the softly amused way Lee was looking at him, he probably understood, anyway.

***

“I’m definitely leaving,” Tony said, then tipped his head back so Lee could kiss the skin under his ear a little more.

“You do look like you’re leaving,” Lee agreed. He needed another shave; his stubble was scratching Tony’s skin and making him shiver.

“No, like, really… I’m really. Shit.” Tony curled his fingers in Lee’s hair and hung on while Lee bit lightly at his throat.

Tony’s dick was hard, painful against the zipper of his jeans, and he knew what was going to happen; they were going to get sidetracked by sex again, and he was going to forget to go home _again_. This was getting ridiculous.

(Nice, obviously. But ridiculous.)

“You know that episode of Buffy - ?” he started.

“The endless sex at the frat party episode?” Lee asked. He pressed his lips softly to the skin he’d bitten. “I was thinking about that, too. I don’t think we’re quite that bad yet?”

“No haunted house, at least,” Tony agreed then froze, wincing. “Sorry, sorry, bad reference was bad.”

Lee shook his head. “Nah, it’s fine. I’m fine.” But he’d pulled back a little, anyway.

Great, Tony was so great at this. Way to ruin the mood with reminders of traumatic experiences. Usually, he’d go for an awkward shoulder bump and hope it was bro-ish, but this was Lee and Tony was definitely allowed to hug him.

“Hey,” he said, tentatively touching Lee’s shoulder. Lee turned toward him, so Tony wrapped his arms around Lee’s shoulders and kissed his cheek. “Sorry.”

“Seriously, it’s fine,” Lee said, but he hugged back anyway, arms around Tony’s waist. They stayed like that for long enough that it should have been uncomfortable, but it wasn’t. 

Tony dropped his head down onto Lee’s shoulder and felt Lee lean his cheek against the top of Tony’s head.

“Is it weird how nice this is?” Lee asked, whispering as though he thought someone would descend from the heavens and laugh at him, if they overheard.

“I don’t know,” Tony whispered back. Without really thinking about it, he tipped his head up to find that Lee was already leaning down, and they kissed gently.

Tony was doomed. He was so doomed. He was so in love and so doomed.

“Stay one more night?” Lee asked. “I swear I’ll drive you home myself, tomorrow.”

God, Tony was the worst wizard in the world. The world was going to end one day and it would definitely be because he was distracted by Lee Nicholas.

“One more night,” he said. He tried to sound firm, but he was almost certain it didn’t work.

Lee pulled him in for another, deeper kiss and Tony was just about to melt into it, when the front door suddenly banged open and someone said, “Oh my god, my eyes,” after a split-second pause.

Lee went tense all the way down his spine, but he didn’t shove Tony away, so it was up to Tony to step away, put a little space between them.

In Lee’s doorway, stood a man who looked a little older than them. He had Lee’s eyes and Lee’s mouth, but lighter hair. He looked torn between horror and hilarity.

“Fuck,” Lee said, and covered his eyes with his hand. It looked more exasperated than despairing though. At least, Tony hoped so. “Don’t you knock?”

“I didn’t know I needed to,” the guy said. “Mom got worried because she hadn’t heard from you, so I figured you were either dead or out. I wouldn’t need to knock for either of those! I didn’t know you had a… a friend. Hi, Lee’s friend.”

“Hi,” Tony said helplessly. Fuck, this had to be Lee’s brother. This couldn’t be good. It was only a couple of hours ago that Lee said he wasn’t ready to come out to his family yet, and here was his brother, catching them making out. Lee was going to go back into the closet and throw Tony out and - 

Lee grabbed his hand and squeezed hard. “This is Tony,” Lee said. “And this is my brother Jason.”

Jason didn’t look at Tony like he was corrupting his little brother, and he didn’t hesitate before stepping forward to offer Tony his hand.

“Sorry for barging in like that,” he said, sounding genuine. “It’s good to meet you.”

“Yeah, uh,” Tony said. He tried to take Jason’s hand, but Lee was still clutching his fingers. “Dude.”

“Sorry,” Lee muttered. He leaned back into the counter and looked embarrassed but stubbornly determined, while Tony and Jason shook hands.

“So,” Jason said, and now he was looking Tony over in a very focused way. Tony had never actually met someone’s family before - there hadn’t been time with Zev’s, and Henry’s were… Tudor - but he was still pretty sure he was being assessed for suitability.

Not sure what else to do, he made sure his handshake was firm, suitably masculine, then felt like an idiot.

Jason smiled. “So,” he said again. “Who are you?”

“Uh, we work together,” Tony said, after throwing a desperate look at Lee to see how he was supposed to handle this. Lee just kept looking a little as though he was having a small, internal freakout.

“He’s... we’re dating,” Lee said, after a pause where he clearly tried to search for the right word.

Tony turned to him. “We are?” he asked. He didn’t mean to squeak, he definitely meant that to come out deeper. He cleared his throat.

“Sure,” Lee said. He flashed Tony a smile that was a little more relaxed. “I mean, we’ll leave the apartment _eventually_.”

“Oh my god,” Jason said faintly. “I feel like that is my cue to go far, far away. Lee, you want me to keep this quiet from Mom?”

“Yeah,” Lee said slowly. “Just for now?” he asked.

“Sure,” said Jason, but he made a face at Lee that clearly meant something, because Lee winced. “Good to meet you, Tony. See you again soon?”

“Uh, yeah,” Tony said, since he wasn’t sure what else he was supposed to say.

With a grin and a wink, Jason let himself out again, the door snicking closed behind him.

There was a long pause, where Tony tried to figure out just how terrible that had been, and Lee very, very slowly slid down the front of the counter until he was sitting on the floor.

Tony double checked to make sure Lee wasn’t having a panic attack - he wasn’t, he mostly seemed to be staring at nothing, his eyes slightly wide - then tapped him lightly on the head.

“Are you okay?” Tony asked. “How freaked out are you, right now?”

“Um,” Lee said, and made a so-so gesture with his free hand.

“He didn’t seem to mind that you were kissing a dude?” Tony tried tentatively. “I mean that was a my-little-brother-is-having-sex reaction, not a gay freakout, right?”

“Yeah,” Lee said, then seemed to shake himself back to the present. He looked up and smiled. “Oh, yeah, he already knew I like guys. He probably just wasn’t expecting it to be suddenly… non theoretical. What’s the opposite of theoretical?”

“Practical?” Tony said.

Lee laughed. “Yeah. I don’t think he was expecting to walk in on a practical display of my bisexuality.”

It was Tony’s turn to snicker. “It’s good that he knew, though. I didn’t think anyone did?” He let himself add a question mark there, because Lee had always been very, _very_ in the closet, at least at work. It was weird to think of him as out and proud in his private life.

“Only him,” Lee said. He grabbed Tony by the wrist and pulled, so Tony sat down next to him. He didn’t know quite what to do, when Lee put his head on Tony’s shoulder, only that it made him feel warm and tingly, so he held his breath and hoped Lee wouldn’t stop. “I told him when I was seventeen, then I made him promise not to tell anyone. I don’t think he ever did.”

“He seemed nice,” Tony said, which he knew didn’t quite make sense, but he didn’t know what to say. He was shitty at this; he wasn’t even sure if Lee needed comforting or if he just needed. Well, Tony had no idea what Lee needed, but he kind of hoped it was him, even if only in part.

“He liked you,” Lee said. He’d leaned his knee against Tony’s, and his head was still on Tony’s shoulder. Considering they’d had their hands and their mouths on each other’s junk by this point, it was ridiculous how breathless that kind of contact made Tony feel.

“Right,” Tony said dismissively. “There’s no way you could tell that. It was two minutes.”

“He liked you,” Lee said stubbornly. He fell silent, fingers tapping a tune on Tony’s thigh. Then all of a sudden, he said, “I’m gonna have to tell my mom and dad.”

“You don’t _have_ to,” Tony said immediately. He felt something that might have been fear jump up into his throat. His own experience of coming out to his parents had been a nightmare. Not that he’d _come out_ exactly; his dad had just demanded to know if he was gay and Tony had been fourteen, too young to lie convincingly or even to know, if he’d wanted to lie.

“I’ll feel like shit, if I don’t,” Lee said. “Mom’ll be heartbroken, if she finds out that Jason knew about you and she didn’t.”

“She won’t, you know, she won’t flip out?” Tony asked. He never, _ever_ thought about the way his mom had sobbed while his dad raged but had never once stood up for him.

“No,” Lee said, and he almost sounded certain.

***

Tony couldn’t settle. He’d been home half an hour, just long enough to throw his clothes in the washing machine and water his poor neglected plants, but now he felt restless and aimless.

Right this moment, Lee would be on his way to his parents’ place. Tony knew it wasn’t his fault that Lee needed to come out, but he still felt guilty. He tried to tell himself that it was _fine_. Even if they freaked out, Lee had his own place, his own money; he wouldn’t lose everything.

Not everything, just his family.

Fuck.

Tony grabbed his phone and sent a text to Zev and to Amy. _Want pizza? Bring beer._

 _OMG HE’S ALIVE!!!_ Amy sent back. Zev just sent him a smiley face emoticon, because Zev was the nicest person Tony knew.

***

Two hours later, Tony was reconsidering his choice of friends. Zev had brought incredibly strong wine, rather than beer, and Amy had brought Jack (the person, not the booze). For some reason, Leah was also there, even though Tony was pretty sure she didn’t really like any of them.

“I’m just here for the gossip,” she said, pouring herself a huge serving of wine into one of Tony’s chipped coffee mugs and kicking back on his sofa. “Kind of sad cutiepie Lee isn’t here though; I wanted to see if I could make him blush.”

“He’s busy,” Tony said, and it only came out abruptly because he was still worrying, but he was pretty sure it _sounded_ like he was jealous. He apologised by reaching over and filling up her mug. She saluted him with it.

“Busy doing what?” Jack asked. He’d staked out a piece of carpet in front of where Amy was sitting on the couch. He was more or less sitting at her feet, but it seemed to make them both happy, so Tony didn’t mention it.

“Stuff,” Tony said vaguely. He bounced his cell phone on his knee, pretending like he wasn’t waiting for a call. “Pizza should be here soon.”

“Well, you are not the bundle of unbridled joy you should be,” Amy told him, tipping her head and squinting at him. “Is the reality of Mr Lee Nicholas not living up to the fantasy? Does he have a disappointing dick?”

“Ugh,” Jack protested.

“No, Lee has a lovely dick,” Leah contributed helpfully.

“ _Ugh_ ,” Jack repeated. 

“Sorry, dear,” Amy said, not sounding it.

Zev had been in the kitchen putting out the snacks that he’d brought, because he was a better host than Tony, even though they weren’t dating, anymore. He came out and bumped his shoulder against Tony’s. “They’re right,” he said. “You’re jittery.”

“I’m okay,” Tony said, but he leaned into Zev a little anyway. “Lee’s coming out to his parents, tonight.”

“Oh,” Zev said, then nodded. He didn’t press for any more details, just let Tony soak up some of his calm. Tony was keeping Zev _forever_ ; he was sure Lee wouldn’t mind.

Around them, the others had gone suspiciously quiet, which meant that they’d heard too, but as long as they didn’t say anything, Tony could deal.

“Let’s watch a movie,” Amy suggested. “Tony, you don’t get to pick.”

Tony straightened up and glared at her. “Hey, it’s my apartment!”

“Yeah, but you’ll pick something boring, and black and white.” She pulled the remote out from between the couch cushions and flicked over to Netflix before handing it to Leah. “You pick.”

“Why does she get to pick?” Tony protested. 

“Because I’m better than you,” Leah told him with a wide, sharky smile.

“Because we want to make her our friend, so I’m bribing her with ultimate cosmic power,” Amy said.

“She already has that,” Tony muttered, while Zev patted his shoulder, consoling.

By the time the doorbell rang, they were all tipsier than Tony had planned on getting, and they were watching some terrible romcom that Leah was inexplicably hooked on.

“I’ll get it,” Tony said, and stumbled out of the tangle of blankets and cushions they’d made on the floor. He opened the door as he was digging for his wallet, but looked up when the delivery guy didn’t say anything.

It wasn’t the delivery guy; it was Lee. He was holding a stack of pizzas, which explained the delicious pizza-y smell, and he was smiling faintly.

“Hey.”

“ _Hey_ ,” Tony said and stepped out into the hall with him, rather than inviting him in. He wasn’t sure why he did that. His brain was a little slow and drunk and he didn’t want the others overhearing whatever Lee was about to say. “Are you okay?”

Lee’s smile stayed in place, but it still didn’t reach all the way to his eyes. “Are you having a pizza party?”

“I got invaded by the Scooby Gang,” Tony said and didn’t mention that he’d invited them over in the first place. “Did you mug the pizza guy?”

“I had to, sorry, the smell was too good,” Lee said, and passed the boxes over. “Here, take them; I’ll get out of your hair.”

“What? No.” It was hard to grab Lee by the sleeve while also balancing a pizza tower, but Tony wasn’t a wizard for nothing. “How did it go with your parents?”

“Okay,” Lee said, but it was the kind of _okay_ that meant that wasn’t all there was to it. “I mean, my dad was cool. My mom cried. She kept apologising and promising that she wasn’t really sad, but she still...” He trailed off there and looked away. “She still _cried_.”

Tony looked around for somewhere to put the pizzas down, but there wasn’t anywhere, and the floor was super gross. He wondered if he could make a table appear with the power of his mind.

“Come in,” he said. “We have alcohol and pizza and Leah can tell you how much she likes your dick. That’ll make you feel better.”

Lee’s eyes were too bright, but he laughed. “I don’t want to know, do I?”

“Nope,” Tony said. He said it as cheerfully as he knew how, and he wasn’t really known for his cheerfulness, but he thought he did okay. “Come on.”

Tony turned to open the door, only to find that there was a slight flaw in his plan. “Uh,” he said. “Shit.”

“Did you lock yourself out?” Lee asked.

“No,” Tony lied. “Shut up.”

Lee leaned his chin on the back of Tony’s shoulder. “Magic it open?” he suggested.

“Good idea,” Tony said, and thought _please please don’t embarrass me_ really hard at the door.

It didn’t so much open as suddenly burst into bright red, cherry-scented light and then sizzle a little bit. However, the next minute, someone pulled it open from the other side, so he figured that was close enough.

“What are you _doing_?” Zev asked, then glanced over Tony’s shoulder and smiled. “Lee! Hi.”

“Hey,” Lee said. “I think the door thing was probably my fault.”

Tony frowned, looking back over his shoulder at him. “Why are you being gentlemanly?” he asked, confused.

“Fuck you,” Lee said cheerfully. “I’m always a gentleman.”

From inside Tony’s apartment, Amy groaned. “Oh god, you two are going to be unbearable, aren’t you?”

Tony smiled at Lee, hoping it looked encouraging, then carried the pizzas into the apartment. “Shut up and eat,” he said, dropping them on the counter.

He was painfully aware that Lee was hovering behind him, uncertain like Lee usually wasn’t. It was definitely up to Tony to smooth the way for him, since this was his apartment and these were his friends and his… person he was apparently dating, but he didn’t know how.

“Thank god you’re here,” Jack said to Lee, and Tony could have kissed him (well, almost). “Look at this crap they’re making me watch.”

“Whatever, you were enjoying it a second ago,” Amy said, stepping on his leg as she climbed over him to get to the pizza.

“Huh,” Lee said, leaning against the back of the couch to see the TV screen. “I’ve met him.”

“Chris Pine?” Amy asked, putting down the slice of pizza she’d just picked up. “You’ve met Chris Pine?”

“Yes?” Lee asked. He raised his eyebrows at her and smiled, slow and charming. “Hi, by the way.”

Amy waved a hand at him. “Yes, hi, we’re all delighted to see you, now tell me more about Chris Pine. Was he hot?”

Lee blushed, and Tony didn’t understand why for a second, except then he realised that oh, right, Lee was about to officially out himself _again_. Lee was having a hell of a day, really. “Pretty hot,” he said. “I mean, I would.”

Leah swung her arm around Lee’s shoulder. “We _all_ would, sweetheart.”

“Um,” Jack tried, but everyone ignored him. 

“Is this okay?” Tony asked, when they’d all settled down in front of the movie, again. He and Lee had claimed the floor, and sent Jack and Zev up onto the couch to fight for space with the girls.

Lee had collected a very large mug of wine and at least twice the amount of junk food he usually allowed himself. “It’s nice,” he said. “You have good friends.”

“They’re pretty much definitely your friends, too,” Tony whispered back.

“Shh,” Leah said, “this is a good part.”

“She means Tony’s right,” Zev said, then sighed. “Yes, yes, Leah, I’m shutting up, now.”

Tony grinned and, when he glanced across at Lee, found that he was doing the same thing. Tony slid his hand across the carpet, bumping their fingers together. Lee bumped back, then they both settled down to let Leah watch her movie in peace.

***

“My mom wants to meet you,” Lee said, which had to be the most terrifying thing anyone had ever said, more terrifying than _oh hey, there’s about to be a demon invasion_ or _I think this house is haunted and wants to kill us_.

“Could we not?” Tony asked frantically. “Is not an option?”

“Not’s definitely an option,” Lee said, “but - ” He stuffed his phone back into his pocket and climbed back into bed. They were both pretty hungover this morning, and lying around on Tony’s futon had seemed like a much better idea than attempting to get up or do anything.

At least, it had until Lee’s mom had called.

“But you want me to?” Tony asked. He wasn’t wrinkling his nose at the idea of meeting Lee’s mom, he was just wrinkling his nose at the idea of meeting _anyone’s_ mom. “Sure, of course, when?”

Lee pulled the comforter up over both of them and squinted at Tony through the dark. “They hold a winter market near where my parents live. We always go. If you come, you can meet my mom and dad, and Jason’s wife and kid all at once. It’ll pretty much cover all my family, all at once and we can distract them with Glühwein and crepes and stuff, if things get too awkward.”

“If they don’t like me, are we over?” Tony asked. He was partly joking, but mostly not, and luckily Lee answered in the same way.

“No,” he said then paused, eyebrows drawing together thoughtfully. “If my nephew doesn’t like you, I may need to reconsider.”

“How old is your nephew?” Tony asked. He knew that Lee was mostly teasing, but he still wanted to make a good impression on everyone.

Lee pillowed his head on his arm and smiled across the pillow at Tony. “He’s four.”

“Noted,” Tony said, and made a mental note to figure out how to impress a four year old.

***

Lee’s parents lived outside the city, out in suburbs full of big, pastel-coloured houses and bright green front lawns. It was one of the areas that Henry had looked at, when they first moved west, before shaking his head and deciding _maybe in another five hundred years_.

At the time, it had made Tony sad, the idea that Henry would still be alive five hundred years later, and Tony would be long forgotten. Now, he was winding his way through a brightly lit winter market with Lee’s sleeve clutched in his hand, so he didn’t lose him, and that time with Henry felt like a lifetime ago.

“Lee!” he heard, but Lee apparently didn’t, because he didn’t stop. “Hey, Lee!”

For a second, Tony was tempted just to let Lee keep walking, so they could delay this as long as possible, but that was cowardly, and the most powerful wizard on the west coast couldn’t be a coward.

He pulled on Lee’s arm, getting him to stop. “Your parents?” he asked, waiting for Lee to look around and wave, before he risked looking over too.

He’d met Lee’s mom before, nearly a year ago, when she’d come down to CB Productions to look around. He doubted she remembered him, since she’d met everyone that day, and people like Peter and Mason were a lot more memorable than he was.

Tonight, she didn’t look so scary, all wrapped up in a red knit cap and thick red scarf, arm in arm with a balding man in a heavy, brown parka. 

“Hey, guys,” Lee said. His voice was tight, like his throat had just closed up. It made Tony do a double-take; Lee was usually great at appearing fine, when he wasn’t, but maybe not with his family. 

“Sweetheart,” Lee’s mom said, and let go of her husband to pull Lee into a hug. He was at least eight inches taller than her, but he stooped easily to hug her back.

Tony looked away and accidentally met Lee’s dad’s eyes. Lee’s dad grinned at him and held out his hand. “I’m Chris,” he said.

“Tony,” he said, as they shook hands. He found his hand being taken from Chris’s and instantly gripped by Lee’s mom, who clutched his gloved fingers between both of hers.

“We’ve met before,” she said, smiling at him. “You were so sweet to me, when I came to visit your set.”

Tony managed to make some sort of noise that he hoped sounded like agreeing without like, _agreeing_ that he’d been sweet.

“I’m Linda,” she said, which was good; in his panic, he’d forgotten that. “Can I give you a hug?”

“Um,” Tony said, feeling his eyes go wide.

“Mom,” Lee protested, but she was already leaning in, putting her hands on Tony’s shoulders and leaning up to press a kiss to Tony’s cheek.

Tony had no idea what to do, actually none. He hadn’t had a mom for ten years; he couldn’t remember what you did with them.

“Hi,” he managed, and apparently that was good enough, because Linda smiled at him and stepped back.

“Jason and Claire are running late,” she said. “They said they’d meet us in the crepe tent. I hope you’re hungry, boys.”

“Well if they’re not, I’m starving,” Chris said, “come on.” He held out his arm for her to take, and they led the way through the crowds. 

Lee grabbed Tony’s hand for a second, before they followed. It was hidden between their bodies, so no one could see. Tony didn’t miss that, but he also didn’t begrudge it. Lee didn’t have to come out to the _whole_ world, today.

“Okay?” Lee asked him softly.

“Kind of,” Tony said, and somehow earned a quick, furtive kiss for that.

***

Lee’s parents were really nice. Tony hadn’t really expected anything else, since Lee was charming and secretly dripping in manners, regardless of how much he wanted the leather and the motorcycle to make him seem like a rebel.

Still, Tony hadn’t expected them to be quite so welcoming. It made him feel breathless and dizzy and like he was somehow tricking them.

Maybe he’d made this happen with his magic? Maybe he wasn’t going to think about that, or he was going to drive himself crazy.

“What happened to that movie you went for?” Chris asked between bites of crepe. “The one in Australia.”

Lee shrugged. “Didn’t get it,” he lied easily. Tony looked down at his own crepe and didn’t give anything away.

“Good,” Linda said. “It sounded _terrible_. _Amazons in Space_ , really?”

“Well, _Star Wars_ isn't knocking down my door,” Lee protested, and now Tony had to keep his head down so he didn’t laugh at the petulant note to Lee’s voice.

“They will,” Linda said confidently. “Don’t you think so, Tony?”

Crap. “Totally,” Tony said, looking up, and ignoring the way Lee narrowed his eyes at him, warningly, like he could already see the joke coming. “Lee would make an awesome Ewok.”

“I hate you,” Lee told him.

Tony smiled at him. “You really don’t,” he said, and it was awesome to actually _know_ that was true.

Linda made a soft noise, and when Tony looked up at her, he found her sharing a smile with Chris.

“ _There_ you are!” said a new voice, and Jason appeared, slapping Lee and Chris on the backs and dropping a kiss onto his mom’s cheek. 

He held out a fist to Tony, who dutifully bumped it, then bent down and scooped a little boy up into the air.

“So, this is Nate,” he said. “Nate, say hi to Uncle Lee’s friend Tony.” 

“Hi,” said the little boy dutifully, although he was looking at Tony very uncertainly. Tony didn’t blame him; he was probably looking back at him in exactly the same way.

“And this is Claire,” Jason said, using his free hand to pull someone else into his orbit. 

She had dark hair and weirdly light eyes, and bright red, flaming wings shooting up out of her back. 

“Great to meet you,” she said warmly, holding out her hand. 

Not sure what else to do, since no one else was reacting to the fucking _wings_ , Tony shook her hand. As soon as their skin touched, a bolt of heat shot through him, like a static shock dialled up to eleven.

Claire’s eyes went wide and then very slightly frightened, before she dropped his hand and stepped back.

Tony shot a quick glance at Lee, but Lee was reacting like a man who was introducing his new… person to the entirety of his family, not like someone who’d accidentally forgotten to tell the local wizard that his sister-in-law was supernatural. Which had to mean he didn’t know; Tony was pretty sure he would have mentioned it, if he’d known.

“I’m going to get a hot chocolate, anyone want one?” Claire asked. Then, before anyone could answer, added, “Tony, come with me and help me carry them? We can bond.”

As soon as they were away from the others, Claire grabbed him by the wrist, sharp fingernails digging into his skin. “What are you?” she muttered.

“Wizard,” he said, “but what are _you_?”

“Oh fuck, a wizard, great,” she said faintly. Then louder, “I’m a phoenix. Do you like my wings?”

“They’re amazing,” Tony said honestly. “Can the others see them? Because Lee never mentioned them.”

“No,” she said, and she sounded sad. “Jason knows they’re there, of course, but he’s never seen them.” She flutters them a little, sending embers into the air like tiny glowing fairies. “They’re pretty, aren’t they?”

“Pretty, and a little terrifying,” Tony said, which made her laugh.

They got in line for hot chocolate, since they had to look pretty suspicious, just standing around in the middle of the tent, talking like they already knew each other. 

“Does Lee know you’re a… about you?” Claire asked.

“Yeah, he’s known since the summer,” Tony said. “He took it well.” Not that he’d had a lot of choice, given the circumstances, but that wasn’t important. “I’m going to feel really weird keeping… you from him.”

The lady in line in front of them kept making little twitchy movements with her head, like she wanted to look back at them. Their conversation must have sounded really weird to an outsider.

Claire took a deep breath. “I’ll tell him,” she said, “but give me some time to work up to it? He was so young, when Jason and I got together; I keep forgetting he’s an adult now.” She looked at Tony slyly and smiled. “An adult with a boyfriend.”

“I’m not… he hasn’t,” Tony sputtered. “Don’t change the subject.”

She smiled and didn’t deny it, just leaned forward to smile at the barista. “Six regular hot chocolates and a kid’s one. Tony, do you need alcohol in yours?”

“I think I do,” Tony said, watching her wings shift as she talked. From behind, they were even more terrifying, wide spans of black-tinged flame, like the middle of a raging fire.

Something tugged at the back of Tony’s memory, but as soon as he tried to chase it, it disappeared. He put it aside to worry about later; it would probably come back, when so many other things weren’t happening.

***

Lee’s nephew Nate turned out to be easy to bribe into liking Tony. All it took was one sly magic trick, when no one else was watching, and he spent the rest of the night glued to Tony’s side, chattering away so fast that Tony only caught every other word.

It was a little unnerving, actually; Tony had no idea what to do with kids, but Lee looked so pleased that Tony felt like it would be a little mean to try to make the kid go back to his parents.

Everyone was frozen through and tired by the time they were finished at the market, and Tony found himself swept up in a general invitation to spend the night at Lee’s parents’ place, rather than driving home.

“No, that’s fine,” he said, stopping in the parking lot next to Lee’s car, when he realised what was happening. “I can get a cab back into the city.”

“But we’d love to have you,” Linda said, so sincerely that Tony, stupidly, almost got a little emotional.

He looked at Lee, who shrugged but looked a little like he was having a feeling, too. “She won’t stop ‘til you say yes,” he said, which Tony took to mean that he didn’t mind Tony crashing his family time.

“Okay,” Tony said, insides buzzing nervously. “Yes. Thanks.”

“Excellent,” Linda said happily, and made her way through the ice back to her own car.

“Are you sure you don’t mind?” Tony asked Lee, as soon as they were in the car. “I don’t want you to think I’m this weirdo, who’s muscling in on your family time.”

Lee reached across the stickshift and squeezed his hand. “I’m kind of blown away by how much they like you,” he admitted. Then he made a face at himself. “Not that you’re not totally likeable, I like you, but - ”

“Stop digging,” Tony advised him, patting his hand, before Lee started driving.

It was starting to snow lightly, but even with that and the ice that had covered the parking lot, the roads were weirdly clear and ice-free.

Tony opened his mouth to comment on it, just as Jason’s car, which was leading, turned a slight corner. From their position at the back of the convoy, Tony could just make out a faint trail of steam drifting up from the road as they travelled over it, the sort of thing that would happen if fire met ice.

He leaned back in his chair and smiled to himself. Being a phoenix must be pretty neat, if it meant you never had to worry about snow or ice slowing you down. Maybe Claire was warm all the time; that sounded awesome.

“Why are you smiling?” Lee asked, glancing over at him at the same time that he flicked the radio on.

“I really like your family,” Tony said, which made Lee smile back, brightly.

***

The room that Lee’s parents put them in wasn’t Lee’s childhood bedroom, which made Tony feel good, in a non-creepy way, but also sad, because he really did want to know as much about Lee as possible.

Instead, they were pointed towards a guest bedroom, and told to have a good night.

“We’re not having sex here,” Tony said, once the door was closed. He stared at the neatly made guest bed, with its slightly frilly comforter, and tried to imagine getting down and dirty with Lee, while his parents slept down the hall.

“No,” Lee agreed, with a tiny shudder. “I think that’d put me off sex for life.”

“Good,” Tony said, nodding. They were just going to sleep. That was fine. They were going to get into bed together and sleep and it would be totally normal and not weird, at all.

“I’m going to brush my teeth,” Lee said. “I keep some clothes in that dresser in the corner. Feel free to steal something to sleep in.”

“Cool,” Tony said, and tried to tell himself not to be weird. Of course they could sleep next to each other without having sex first. This wasn’t a big deal.

“Okay?” Lee asked. Tony wished he was less perceptive, sometimes.

“Yeah,” Tony said, and smiled at him. It might have been a more convincing smile, if he’d managed any words with more than one syllable.

As soon as Lee was gone, Tony went looking for something to change in to. There were spare sweatpants in the bottom drawer, which he quickly changed into, but the t-shirts were all impressively nineties. He was still marvelling at his choice between lurid pink-and-black Ghost Rider and retro cartoon X-Men, when Lee came back in.

“Can I pretend those were Jason’s?” Lee asked, plucking the X-Men one out of Tony’s hands and pulling it on. It was too small in the shoulders and highlighted his biceps in a way that Tony would have liked to follow with his tongue.

Except they weren’t having sex, tonight.

They were in Lee’s parents’ house, and they weren’t going to have sex.

“You can try,” Tony said, “but I already know you’re kind of a dork.”

“I’ll make you sleep on the floor,” Lee warned, narrowing his eyes.

“I’ll turn you into a toad,” Tony countered, pleased when Lee only managed to hold his glare for one more beat, before giving up and dissolving into laughter.

“There’s a spare toothbrush on the sink,” Lee said, giving him a light push toward the door. “Hurry before Nate gets in there. He takes forever and leaves the floor like a swamp.”

Mostly, Tony didn’t want to get caught by any of Lee’s family, while bare chested and clutching a Ghost Rider t-shirt, so he hurried, making it there and back without bumping into anyone.

Lee was sitting up in bed, when Tony let himself back into the guest room and closed the door behind him.

“Do you have a side of the bed?” Lee asked. “We can swap.”

“No, you’re good,” Tony said, the weird, nervous feeling returning in a rush. “So, this is all cosily domestic.”

Lee smiled but didn’t answer, and Tony wished he hadn’t said anything. Great, now they _both_ knew this was weird.

He climbed into bed and wondered if it would be better or worse, if he leaned over and kissed Lee. Too light a kiss would feel like they were an old married couple, but too heavy a one might make Lee think he was coming on to him.

In the end, Tony just lay down on his side, facing Lee, and waited to see what would happen.

What happened was that Lee leaned over to turn off the light, then lay down too, facing Tony. “I know this is weird,” he whispered in the dark. “Is it terrible weird?”

“No,” Tony said quickly. “It’s just… _weird_ weird.”

“Yeah,” Lee said, and put his hand on Tony’s side.

For some unknown, ungodly reason, Tony jumped. He didn’t mean to, it was pretty much the last thing he meant to do, but he was twitchy and the touch was unexpected.

“Sorry,” he said quickly, but Lee had already taken his hand away. “No, come back, I said I was sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Lee said, and rolled onto his back. “Maybe I should take the sofa?”

“No,” Tony said firmly. “We can share a bed. We’re, you know, we’re not just in this for sex, right?”

“Of course not,” Lee said, sounding appalled.

Tony let himself grin, because it was dark and Lee couldn’t see. “Well, then. We’re going to learn to share a bed.” He forced himself to keep going, even though it was awkward. “I’m not totally sure I’ve ever done it before.”

“Zev?” Lee asked, sounding confused.

Tony tried, but he couldn’t think of a time when he and Zev had just gotten into bed and fallen asleep. They’d had the kind of sexual chemistry that just burst into enthusiastic light as soon as they got within touching distance, but he wasn’t telling Lee that.

He settle for saying, “He didn’t stay over much; he does about a zillion extracurricular things at his synagogue,” which was also true.

“Okay, Henry then,” Lee said. He rolled back onto his side and Tony scooted in a little closer. They weren’t touching, but they were creating a warm pocket of air between them. “You guys lived together.”

“We had separate bedrooms,” Tony said. “Which isn’t as weird as it sounds. Henry doesn’t sleep like a regular person - ” True. “Writers keep crazy schedules.” Also true. The fact that those two things had nothing to do with each other, they just _sounded_ like they did, wasn’t his fault. Not really. “Besides, we were nearly broken up by the time we moved in together.”

“So why move in together?” Lee asked. 

Tony shrugged, even though it was dark. “I wanted to get out of Toronto, I wanted us _not_ to be nearly over, I wanted to be near him, even if we weren’t together anymore… I don’t know, really. Take your pick?”

Lee was silent for a while then, “Should I be more jealous of Henry than I am?” he asked.

“Never be jealous of Henry,” Tony said immediately. “Henry writes romance novels full of heaving bosoms for a living; you can’t be jealous of that.”

“True,” Lee said, “but - ” and then he mumbled something that Tony didn’t catch.

“What was that?” Tony asked, shifting closer. “Enunciate, Mr Actor Man.”

“I said that that wasn’t the part I was thinking about being jealous of,” Lee muttered. Tony really wanted to lean over and kiss him, but he wasn’t sure if that was too affectionate. He wasn’t very good at affectionate. Besides, it was dark; he might end up kissing Lee’s chin or something.

“I know what you mean,” Tony said instead. “It’s his hair, right?”

Lee laughed. “Yeah, I’ve always wanted to be a redhead,” he said. He yawned, which made Tony yawn, then laughed. “Sleep?”

“Sleep,” Tony agreed, and rolled over onto his other side, getting comfortable. 

After a minute, Lee shifted and Tony felt his warmth roll away. It was dumb to feel a pang about that - it wasn’t like he wanted to be spooned or anything - so he told himself to shut up and go to sleep.

***

The sleeping thing worked pretty well for about an hour, but then Lee must have moved or breathed louder or something, because Tony woke up with a start and found himself staring up at the ceiling.

Beside him, Lee slept peacefully on, but Tony felt wide awake. He sat up slowly, then rolled out of bed. It was warm in the house, even in the middle of the night, but he still grabbed the hideous Ghost Rider t-shirt and pulled it on.

The house was pretty modern-looking and the stairs didn’t creak, as Tony walked down them. He a mental note to investigate a silencing spell, anyway, since that seemed like it might be pretty useful, on occasion.

The kitchen was at the bottom of the stairs on the right, but Tony wasn’t really thirsty, just restless, so he decide to check out the lounge. No one he knew lived in a house; in fact probably the last house he’d slept in was his parents’.

There was so much _space_. When he was a rich and famous director, he was totally buying the biggest house he could afford and then dedicating rooms to ridiculous things, like one for his movie poster collection and another for all the Oscars he would have won by then.

(Lee could have a shelf too, for all his Oscars, because in this fantasy future, they were totally the new Hollywood power couple. Move over Brad and Angelina.)

There was a huge, leather couch along one wall, bigger than Tony’s bed at home. He turned the TV on low, then curled up on the couch, hoping he could lure himself back into sleepiness.

Obviously, it worked way better than he’d been planning, and he woke up god knew how much longer later to Lee’s mom standing in the doorway, silhouetted in light from the kitchen.

“You okay, sweetheart?” she asked. She was wrapped up in a big, fluffy bathrobe and looked soft around the edges, tired.

It made Tony open his mouth and answer her honestly. “I sleep really lightly in new places,” he said.

“Oh god, me too,” she said. “When we first moved in here, I don’t think I slept right for a week.”

“Did the TV wake you?” Tony asked, belatedly reaching for the remote and turning it off. He didn’t know what was on, anyway.

Linda shook her head. “No, not at all, you’re fine. Had to get up to use the bathroom, old lady bladder.”

“You’re not old,” Tony said, then hoped that didn’t sound weird. If Jason was early thirties, she had to be at least fifty, but she didn’t look any older than that. His mom had looked worn down all his life.

“You’re adorable,” Linda said, which made him blush and wish he hadn’t said anything. “I’m going to make some camomile tea, if you’d like some?”

“Okay,” Tony said, and stood up. “I can make it, though.”

“Adorable,” Linda repeated, taking his seat on the couch, while he went into the kitchen to fill the kettle with water and order it sternly to boil immediately.

Two minutes later, they were sitting together on the sofa, each with a mug in hand, and Linda was telling him he must be magic, because the kettle had never boiled that fast for her.

“Maybe it likes me,” Tony said, and tried to think of some way to change the subject. He shouldn’t have used his magic; someone who hadn’t noticed her daughter-in-law was a phoenix probably couldn’t handle a wizard.

“We all like you,” Linda said, and laughed at him when he ducked his head, surprised. “Lee likes you.”

“Yeah,” Tony mumbled. “I hope so.”

“I was starting to worry about him, you know,” she said, leaning forward confidentially. “He kept going out with new girls but none of them stuck. I didn’t realise he was waiting for a boy.”

Tony really, really wanted to take the credit for that, pretend that he’d come in and saved Lee from a life of unfulfilling heterosexuality, but he remembered how annoyed Henry used to get when people saw them together and assumed he only liked guys, and he couldn’t do it. “I don’t think he was?” he said. “I mean, Lee likes girls and boys.”

She nodded, like Lee had already told her that but she didn’t have it settled quite right in her mind, yet. “In that case he was just waiting for you,” she said, and Tony gave up trying to fight the blush.

He had no idea what she was going to say next, probably something equally welcoming but embarrassing, but then they heard the front door open.

“Who on earth - ” Linda asked, standing up.

“Let me have a look,” Tony said. He’d never put his magic up against a burglar before, but there was a first time for everything.

“We’ll both go,” Linda said, and reached behind the sofa to produce a baseball bat, which she hefted expertly in her hand.

Tony wondered if she was in the market for a son-in-law. He’d fill the void even if Lee wasn’t in the picture.

He crept out into the hallway and had a look around. At first, he couldn’t see anything, then he spotted a soft glow at the top of stairs.

“Claire?” he called, either being that weirdo who gave a genuine fire a girl’s name or spotting a lurking phoenix.

“Claire?” Linda echoed, joining Tony at the bottom of the stairs. “Oh hi, sweetheart, is everything okay? Did you go out?”

“I…” Claire stepped out of the shadows at the top of the stairs. She was dressed for outdoors, and had her hands in her pockets. “Nate couldn’t sleep, so I took him for a drive around. It always used to settle him when he was a baby.”

“Aww,” Linda said. “Is he okay now?”

Claire smiled. It looked nervous, Tony thought, but he wasn’t sure what she had to be nervous about. She was allowed to drive her own kid around the block, if she wanted to. “Sleeping peacefully,” she said, “which is where I’d like to be. Good night.”

“Night,” Tony echoed. He was caught off guard by a yawn, as soon as she was gone. “I think I’m going to go to bed too. Do you mind?”

Linda shook her head and took the mug out of his hand. “Of course not. Sleep well.” For a second, Tony thought she was going to kiss his cheek again, and he couldn’t decide if he wanted that.

In the end she didn’t, just waved him up to bed.

Upstairs, there was complete silence. He peeked into Nate’s room, but Nate was sleeping just as peacefully as Claire had said, his cheeks pink and a stuffed rabbit thing clutched in his hand. 

Lee had shifted over in bed since Tony left. He’d rolled all the way across onto Tony’s side and had an arm wrapped around Tony’s pillow, which didn’t leave Tony much choice but to climb into bed beside him.

It was warm under the comforter and something in Tony relaxed immediately. He shouldn’t have gotten out of bed. What a stupid idea.

Lee mumbled something which might have been a question, and shifted backwards into the curve of Tony’s body.

Instinctively, Tony wrapped an arm across his chest and pulled them flush together. Lee was a few inches taller than him, but they still fit together easily like this. It stopped the weird, uncomfortable squirming that Tony had felt earlier, like they actually _could_ sleep together like a real couple.

Fuck, Tony really wanted them to be a real couple.

He kissed the back of Lee’s head, and didn’t let himself do anything ridiculous like make any confessions in the dark.

***

“Hey, did you know the Children’s library burned down, last night?” Lee asked, coming into the kitchen looking an interesting combination of sweaty and half-frozen.

He’d decided to go for a run after they woke up that morning and Tony, not being a crazy person, had decided not to join him, which had left him alone to have breakfast with Linda and Chris, but it was still better than _running_ , in _December_.

Well, running any time of year. Tony didn’t run.

“Burned _down_?” Linda asked. “That’s terrible, was anyone hurt?”

“I don’t think so,” Lee said. He filled a glass of water from the tap and downed it. “There were tons of fire trucks around it. This old lady on the corner said they thought it was arson.”

Of course Lee talked to random old ladies on the corner, of course he did.

“Shocking,” Chris said, shaking his head, and then conversation moved on to something else.

Tony was distracted though. It was probably a massive coincidence, but he couldn’t help thinking about the fires Mike had told him about. A library seemed like a weird thing for some supernatural being to want to burn down, but it might be worth investigating, anyway.

“Where’s Jason and everyone?” Lee asked, sinking down into the chair next to Tony and picking up his coffee mug.

Tony thought about objecting, but Lee seemed to be warming his hands on it, not stealing coffee, so he left him to it.

“Gone,” Chris said. “Claire had to get to work early for something.”

Tony froze.

Claire.

Claire who’d gone out in the middle of the night last night. Claire who was a phoenix and therefore basically a walking open flame.

She could be behind the fires. She could easily be behind the fires.

Fuck, he hoped he was wrong.

“Want to get going, soon?” Lee asked, giving back the coffee but stealing a couple of dregs of bacon from Tony’s plate. 

Distracted, Tony pushed his plate over, and earned the bump of Lee’s ankle against his for his trouble. 

“Yeah,” Tony said. “Yeah, actually, I’ve got some shit to do at home.” He looked up at Lee and tried to convey _secret wizard shit_ with his eyebrows.

“Everything okay?” Lee asked, so huh, maybe that actually worked.

“Hopefully,” Tony said, and crossed his fingers hard under the table.

***

As soon as Lee dropped Tony off at his apartment, Tony got out Ara’s laptop and started researching phoenixes.

Then he spent the rest of the time until sunset pacing around his apartment. 

“I need you to tell me I’m being paranoid,” Tony said, rather than _hi_ , as soon as Henry answered the phone. They’d known each other long enough, they didn’t need to say hi, anymore.

“I can most likely do that,” Henry said, “but I may need a little more information.”

“There’s been some fires around here lately, and someone told Vicki that they were supernatural, and I just found out that Lee’s sister-in-law is a phoenix and oh god, what if it’s her? Lee’s family actually likes me. They’re not going to like me, if I have to vanquish her.”

“How would one vanquish a phoenix?” Henry asked, sounding idly curious at best.

“I don’t know!” Tony said, and contemplated tearing out his hair. (His own hair, not Henry’s, although that was an idea too.)

“Let’s think about this logically,” Henry said. “Have you considered talking to this young lady and asking her if she’s starting fires?”

“That won’t work,” Tony scoffed. “Why would she tell me?”

“Because you’re the wizard,” Henry said, in a tone that implied Tony should already know this. “That gives you a certain amount of authority.”

“Huh,” Tony said. Maybe he _should_ have thought of that. 

“So, Lee’s family likes you?” Henry asked, apparently deciding they were done with the part of the conversation where he was helpful.

“Shut up,” Tony said, but he didn’t hang up, no matter how tempting it was.

***

Tony didn’t get in touch with Lee that night, and it shouldn’t have felt weird, because they’d seen each other that morning and they hadn’t made plans, but he still felt like Lee was ignoring him.

But he’d promised Claire time to tell Lee herself, and he didn’t think he could keep the secret, if they were together while he waited.

Plus, once she’d done that, he was going to have to get her number from Lee, so he could demand to know if she was an arsonist so, you know, that was going to be fun.

As he was getting into bed that night, he got a text from Lee, just a simple good night and a smiley face.

“Ugh,” Tony said, and decided that tomorrow, no matter what happened, he was telling Lee.

***

It was still pitch dark, when Tony’s alarm went off and confused the hell out of him, partly because he hadn’t _set_ an alarm and partly…

It wasn’t his alarm, it was his phone, and he answered it blurrily, making a sound more than a word.

“Tony?” Lee said. He sounded panicked, which made Tony sit bolt upright, even while he still struggled to wake up. “Sorry, I know it’s the middle of the fucking night, but - ”

“No, it’s fine.” Tony felt around for his jeans and hopped into them, phone tucked under his ear. “What’s up?”

“I’m not sure.” In the background, Tony thought he could hear a siren speeding past, which implied Lee was outside, maybe driving. “Claire called me and she said she needed you. Why does she need you?”

“Um,” Tony said. “Where are you now?”

“Two minutes from your apartment,” Lee said. “Meet you outside? And don’t think I didn’t notice you changing the subject.”

Tony found yesterday’s sweatshirt and pulled it on, kind of throwing his phone up into the air and holding it there with magic while he pulled the collar over his head. Now _that_ was a useful trick. 

“To be fair,” he said, when he had the phone back to his ear. “I didn’t change the subject so much as totally ignore you.”

“Point,” Lee said. “Okay, I’m here.”

“Coming,” Tony said, and snapped his phone closed. He looked around for a second, but there wasn’t really anything he needed to bring. Maybe he should buy one of those Harry Potter wands on eBay; it’d be nice to have a prop for his wizarding.

***

“Where are we going?” Tony asked, climbing into Lee’s car and buckling up.

Lee hit the gas as soon as Tony had the door shut. “A playground near Claire and Jason’s house,” Lee said. “What the hell is going on?”

“I swear I’ll explain as soon as I know,” Tony promised. “Didn’t she say?”

“No.” Lee’s voice was tight and Tony tried to remember that this was Lee’s _family_ , this wasn’t just some random people with a supernatural problem. “She just yelled and sounded like she wanted to cry. Claire doesn’t cry, she never cries, we got in a car crash once and she broke six ribs and all she said was ‘ow.’”

Tony put his hand on Lee’s knee and squeezed. “Everything’s going to be fine,” he promised, even though it was a stupid promise to make. 

Lee put on his left turn signal and turned sharply, just as a traffic light turned red. Lee was a good driver and it was the middle of the night, but Tony still clutched at the dash a little with his free hand. 

Up ahead, a row of tall, green-painted railings came into view. Initially, Tony thought they were light by streetlights, but then they got closer and he realised it wasn’t streetlights, it was fire.

“Stop the car,” he said. It came out all commanding and wizardy and Lee stopped the car immediately. 

Tony scrambled out of the car and ran for the park. The first thing he saw was Jason, on his knees on the frosty ground and clutching one hand against his chest. In front of him stood Claire, her burning wings stretched out fully and curling towards a ball of fire burning in the middle of a grassy patch of land.

Lee was at Tony’s heels, and he dropped down next to Jason, talking to him urgently. Jason shook his head and showed Lee his hand, which looked blistered and burned, but not permanently damaged.

Tony left them to it and turned to Claire.

“What happened?” Tony yelled. There was a roar of sound coming from somewhere, nearly drowning out his voice, and he pushed against the heat to get closer to her.

Claire didn’t turn toward him, just pointed. “I can’t get him to stop,” she said. There were tears running down her cheeks, pearly and odd-looking, and unaffected by heat.

At first, Tony couldn't figure out what she meant. He squinted at the fire and could only see _fire_ , but then it shifted like a magic eye and he realised it wasn’t a ball of fire, it was another set of wings, much smaller and curled tight around a tiny, sobbing figure.

“Nate?” he asked, even though he knew it was, it had to be. “Fuck. It was him all along?”

“Did you think it was me?” Claire asked. She laughed hoarsely. “I fucking wish it was me. His powers are coming in so early. No matter what I do, he somehow gets out of the house, and he doesn’t know what he’s doing. I can usually get close enough to make him stop, but tonight… He just...”

“Okay, it’s okay,” Tony said. His laptop, that’s what he should have grabbed. Ara had a lot of stuff on phoenixes, although not baby ones.

“Oh my god,” Lee whispered, sounding stricken. He was half-supporting Jason, fingers white-knuckled around Jason’s arm.

“It’s okay,” Tony repeated, even though it definitely wouldn’t look like that and he wasn’t yet totally sure how he was going to make it true. “I’m going to fix this.”

He’d half been hoping that his magical wizard powers would make him impervious to supernatural fire. They didn’t. His skin felt singed and his eyebrows smelled alarmingly burned before he got within five feet of Nate.

He dropped down onto his knees so they were nearer the same height, and held out a hand. “Hey, Nate, remember me?”

Whether or not Nate remembered him didn’t really seem to matter, because Nate was crying too hard to look at him. 

“I need you to put the big, burning wings away, okay?” Tony said. The grass around Nate had been glowing faintly, but it looked about ready to burst into flames.

Nate just carried on crying, lifting one hand to rub at his eyes. He was so tiny. Tony didn’t even really like kids, but he still felt a pang for this one.

“Hey,” Tony said. “What’s this?” He drew a quick sketch in the air, a really lopsided star, and sent in through the air toward Nate.

It passed through the flames more easily than Tony had feared, and danced in front of Nate’s eyes. He blinked at it for a second, and his wings flickered. Then he started crying again.

“Come on,” Tony muttered. “My drawing skills aren’t that hot.” Then he realised that maybe he didn’t need to _draw_ , maybe he just needed to create. He concentrated really hard and something that might have looked a little like a lopsided goldfish formed out of light, appeared in his palm.

That one distracted Nate for a little longer, and there was a definite lessening of the deafening roar from his wings. 

“Do you like horses?” Tony asked. _Do I really know what a horse looks like?_ Tony thought. He tried to picture a Mountie and realised he should have paid more attention to Jack.

The thing he created wasn’t a horse. It was definitely a unicorn. It was rainbow coloured and had a little horn sticking out of the top of its head. Tony was really embarrassed for himself.

But it actually galloped through the air, and it didn’t flicker and fade away the way the other things had. It bumped against Nate’s nose, then fell into his lap and lurched around on his legs like a slightly drunk or zombie unicorn.

Nate stared down at it, eyes going wide. Then he reached out a tentative hand toward it and Tony held his breath.

The little unicorn shimmered when Nate touched it, but it didn’t disappear. Nate laughed, and reached for it again, and his wings fell to his sides, the flames going out and the wings disappearing into nothingness.

Tony fell over backwards on the grass, while Claire and Jason raced in and swept Nate up. “Fuck,” Tony told the starry sky with feeling.

“ _What_ the fuck?” Lee asked, sitting down next to him. He sounded as shaky as Tony felt. “What the _fuck_?”

Tony waved a hand at the happy family reunion. “Ask them.”

It took a while, because Claire and Jason apparently needed to hug Nate a lot, and Nate needed to squirm and try to keep playing with his unicorn, which _still_ hadn’t dissipated, but eventually Lee did ask.

“Okay,” Jason said, “I know this is going to sound weird, but magic is real.”

Lee stared at him for two beats. “I know magic is real,” he said. “What do you think Tony was doing? Party tricks?”

“Wait, you knew?” Jason demanded, then spun around to look at Tony. “What are _you_?”

Tony sighed. “I’m a wizard,” he said.

“Like Gandalf?” Jason asked.

Claire waved a hand. “And I’m a phoenix.” She looked pretty delighted to get to say that. Tony wondered how long she’d felt bad about keeping the secret from Lee.

“A _phoenix_?” Lee asked, half-laughing, like the idea was impossible. “Since when?”

“Always,” Claire said. “I wanted to tell you, _we_ wanted to tell you, but we didn’t know how. It sounded so ludicrous.”

Lee held up a hand, interrupting her. “And Nate’s a phoenix?”

“Apparently.” Jason had Nate on his lap and he rocked him a little, which Nate didn’t seem to like too much, judging by his pout. “We thought that even if he did inherit it, it wouldn’t come through until he was older, but then bam! Tiny, accidental arsonist.”

Tony didn’t want to be the magic police in this situation, but there wasn’t anyone else. “He’s going to need to control it. Can’t you teach him?”

“It’s not that easy,” Claire said, looking miserable. “I was taught to control it by my whole family, for years and years. But they won’t forgive me for marrying a human, so Nate only has me.”

“I know people,” Tony offered. (Henry, he knew Henry.) “I’ll find someone who can help you.”

“Thank you,” Jason said, and Claire echoed it. “No, dude, seriously, thank you. I don’t know if you saved his life, but you definitely saved him from something shitty.”

Tony shrugged. “It’s fine. It’s… I mean.” He always wanted to say _It’s what I do_ , but that was still so fucking pretentious.

Lee put an arm around him and leaned into him. “Thanks,” he said softly. Then, louder, “Wait, Jason, so when I was telling mom and dad I was dating a guy, you couldn’t have mentioned you were married to a phoenix? That would really have taken the pressure off, you know?”

“We’re saving it for when you come out to the press,” Jason said. “If they’re too shitty about it, Claire can just burst into flames on live TV, or something.”

Lee laughed. “I’ll hold you to that,” he said.

***

Lee drove Tony back home with him without them needing to discuss it. They sunk down onto the sofa, exhausted, as soon as they got there.

“Fuck,” Lee said, after a minute. “That was unexpected.”

“I’ve given up on unexpected,” Tony told him. “You think something will never happen, and then it turns out people are phoenixes.”

“Is that why you were avoiding me last night?” Lee asked. He picked up Tony’s left hand, and started trying to rub soot off his skin.

“Yeah,” Tony said, looking down at their hands. The scar on his palm tingled when Lee touched it, which made Tony feel a little too much like Harry Potter. “Sorry.”

“You need to stop leaving me out of things,” Lee said. He looked up at Tony from under the fall of his dark hair and smiled a smile that was probably bad for Tony’s heart.

Tony swallowed. “Do I?” he asked.

“Yeah.” Lee’s smile went even softer. “I mean, if I’m going to be your boyfriend, you should share things with me.”

“Are you? Going to be my boyfriend, I mean?” Tony asked, feeling this weird, shivery sort of happiness start off in his toes and work its way up.

“That’s my plan,” Lee told him. He hadn’t stopped touching Tony’s hand; it wasn’t helping with the shivers.

Tony opened his mouth to say something sarcastic, anything really that would hide how much he was feeling, but all that came out was an embarrassingly quiet, “Okay.”

Lee’s teasing expression faded away. “Okay,” he said. He stood up and pulled Tony to his feet.

“Where are we going?” Tony asked, hoping it sounded suspicious and not like he’d go wherever Lee wanted.

“Bedroom,” Lee said. He pulled Tony in for a quick kiss. “Boyfriend sex.”

“Oh,” Tony said. “Okay.”

***

The hiatus seemed as though it lasted forever, but as soon as they walked back onto set, Tony felt as though he’d never been gone.

“Good Christmas?” Peter asked, then dropped a stack of sides into Tony’s hands and walked off before Tony could answer.

Across the soundstage, Mason had cornered Lee, who was taking it very patiently. 

“Oh god,” Adam said, coming up behind Tony and making him drop the sides. “I’d forgotten you did that.”

“Did what?” Tony asked, ignoring the sides so he could pretend that hadn’t happened.

“Stared dreamily at Lee, while little cartoon mice sighed in sync,” Adam said. He looked down at the fallen sides and smirked.

Tony thought about getting defensive, but then he remembered pressing Lee into cool tiles this morning and licking his abs, while shower water beat down warm on his back. He smiled instead. 

Adam frowned at him, looking unnerved, and moved away to greet this week’s extras, who all seemed to be arriving at once. 

Tony sighed, and sat down on the floor, picking up the fallen sides and starting to pile them back together. Everything was back to normal; it was comfortingly familiar.

Well, almost everything.

A shadow fell over him and he looked up to find Lee looking down at him. “Hey, Tony,” he said and didn’t make any effort to lower his voice. A couple of people glanced over, like they were hoping for free entertainment. “Good Christmas?”

Tony bit down a smile. “Not bad,” he said. “Spent a lot of it in bed.”

Lee sucked his lower lip into his mouth and nodded politely. “Sounds nice. So.”

“So?” Tony asked. He was pretty sure a lot more people were watching now. The rest of the soundstage had fallen suspiciously quiet.

Lee smiled again; he was clearly enjoying this. Actors were so weird. “Do you want to get dinner tonight?”

Tony laughed, he couldn’t help it. “I, um,” he said, staring at Lee as though Lee could telepathically explain what he was up to. 

“Come on,” Lee said, nodding a little encouragingly. “Don’t leave me hanging, dude.”

“Okay,” Tony said, starting to smile back. “Not pizza. I want something classy.”

“Okay,” Lee agreed. “I can do classy.” He knocked the pile of sides with the toe of his shoe. “Need some help?”

Tony looked down at the sides then back up. “Yeah, okay,” he said. He patted the space next to him, and Lee sat down, both of them carefully not looking around to see if people were still watching.

“You know they’re all going to think this is our first date, right?” Tony asked, leaning in close and talking softly.

“It is, though,” Lee said, shrugging.

Tony gave him a funny look. “Not really,” he said. He lowered his voice so none of the nosy assholes they worked with could overhead this part. “Did you forget all the sex?”

Lee shook his head and didn’t back down. “That doesn’t count.”

“It felt like it counted,” Tony said, with a waggle of his eyebrows.

Lee smiled, but still shook his head again. “I want to do this right,” he said. “Not just, you know, not just sex.”

Tony ducked his head, biting his lip while his cheeks flushed hot. “Cool,” he muttered.

Lee bumped their elbows together. “You knew that though, right?”

“Yeah, I guessed,” Tony muttered. He had guessed; the boyfriends thing had been kind of a clue, but he hadn’t known Lee was going to come out at work. That was kind of a big step.

Lee leaned over and kissed Tony’s cheek, right where his blush felt hottest. Across the room, he heard Peter mutter, “Oh god,” but Tony didn’t care, not even slightly.

“Go do some work,” Tony ordered, so he could have a minute to claw back his dignity. “Also, Mason is staring at you like a stranded guppy, so you might want to give him the birds and the bees talk.”

“The things I do for you.” Lee groaned, but he stood up, anyway. 

Tony watched him walk away, and felt really, unprecedentedly happy. If Adam was right and cartoon mice really did appear, well, Tony was too busy staring at Lee to notice.


End file.
